Μελίνη
meline, millet
Translated by David Whitehead25 Sep 2001Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
Demosthenes in [the] Philippic[s] [sc. uses the word].1 It is a pulse, and grammatically masculine; for2 Sophocles and Herodotus and Xenophon made it feminine.3 But the same Xenophon, in Anabasis, spoke of [sc. masculine] melinos and melinoi.4 Some consider meline a kind of kenchrios, which some call elymos; but Theophrastus in [book] 7 of On Plants lists these as different - "kenchros or meline or elymos."5
Greek original · Adler’s text
Μελίνη· Δημοσθένης ἐν Φιλιππικῷ. ὄσπριόν ἐστιν· ὅπερ καὶ ἀρσενικῶς λέγεται· Σοφοκλῆς μὲν γὰρ καὶ Ἡρόδοτος καὶ Ξενοφῶν θηλυκῶς εἶπον μελίνην. Ξενοφῶν δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς ἐν Ἀναβάσει καὶ μέλινον καὶ μελίνους εἶπεν. ἔνιοι δὲ εἶδός τι κεγχρίου νομίζουσι τὴν μελίνην, ὅπερ τινὰς καλεῖν ἔλυμον. Θεόφραστος δὲ ἐν ζʹ Περὶ φυτῶν ὡς διαφέροντα ταῦτα ἀναγράφει κέγχρον ἢ μελίνην ἢ ἔλυμον.
Betacode
*meli/nh: *dhmosqe/nhs e)n *filippikw=|. o)/sprio/n e)stin: o(/per kai\ a)rsenikw=s le/getai: *sofoklh=s me\n ga\r kai\ *(hro/dotos kai\ *cenofw=n qhlukw=s ei)=pon meli/nhn. *cenofw=n de\ o( au)to\s e)n *)anaba/sei kai\ me/linon kai\ meli/nous ei)=pen. e)/nioi de\ ei)=do/s ti kegxri/ou nomi/zousi th\n meli/nhn, o(/per tina\s kalei=n e)/lumon. *qeo/frastos de\ e)n z# *peri\ futw=n w(s diafe/ronta tau=ta a)nagra/fei ke/gxron h)\ meli/nhn h)\ e)/lumon.
Notes (5)
- An abridgement of Harpokration s.v. For the word, a variety of millet, see already mu 506; and on the botanical classification of millets, R. Sallares, The Ecology of the Ancient Greek World (London 1991) index s.v., esp. 492-3.
- 1Demosthenes 8.45 (cf. 14.16). [NB this reflects the broad ancient classification, not the narrower modern one, of which Demosthenic speeches are "Philippics".] ↩
- 2A faulty connection: we needed "but". ↩
- 3Sophocles fr.69 Radt; Herodotus 3.117.4; Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.22, 1.5.10. ↩
- 4The passage in question, as Harpok. shows, is 6.4.6 -- but modern editions print
meli/nas there. ↩ - 5Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 8.1.1. ↩
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Revision history6 revisions · last 17 May 2016
- Revised — David Whitehead
- tweak — Catharine Roth
- Revised — David Whitehead
- cosmetics — David Whitehead
- modified notes — David Whitehead
- cosmetics, status — Catharine Roth
- Translated — David Whitehead